


Our Time (Me & U)

by heyjupiter



Series: Day By Day [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, No Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Post-Iron Man 3, Science Bros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-07 07:29:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18615988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyjupiter/pseuds/heyjupiter
Summary: Tony is grateful to have Bruce's company during the construction of the new Avengers facility, but he really misses his bots. Luckily, he has a good crew to help restore them.





	Our Time (Me & U)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to volunteerfd for beta reading ♥
> 
> I wrote 99% of this before seeing Endgame. There are no spoilers here; the leadup to Endgame has just made me feel very nostalgic so I ended up back at Iron Man 3.
> 
> This is for the DUM-E square on my [Science Bros Bingo](https://twentyghosts.tumblr.com/sciencebrosbingo) card.
> 
> This is a sequel to [All The Million Hours](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18578716%22), and like that fic is a canon divergence for the very end of Iron Man 3. (If you haven't read that fic but want to read this one: in short, Bruce comes back to New York a few weeks after most of the events of Iron Man 3; Pepper and Tony are taking a break; Tony and Bruce enter a relationship and also begin work on the new Avengers facility [ahead of the MCU timeline for that.] About a month later, here we are.)
> 
> Apologies to Stephen Sondheim for eliding his lyrics to create this title. Musical theater nerds, of course, know that "Our Time" goes like this:  
>  _It's our time, breathe it in:_  
>  _Worlds to change and worlds to win_  
>  _Our turn coming through,_  
>  _Me and you, man,_  
>  _Me and you_
> 
> Also apologies for the pun, but it's Tony Stark's fault.

Tony was lost in the darkness, he was trapped on the wrong side of the wormhole with the--

"Lights, please, JARVIS," Bruce said softly. "Shh, Tony, you're safe, okay? You're safe."

Tony caught his breath and threw his arms around Bruce gratefully. He wasn't in the cold, black void of space. He was safe for the moment, on Earth, warm in bed with Bruce's reassuring presence right beside him. Bruce was so endlessly gentle with Tony, no matter how often Tony had disrupted his sleep in the weeks since Tony had finally persuaded Bruce to share a bed with him. 

"Thanks, Brucie."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Bruce asked. He asked this occasionally, always with sincerity although Tony had never once taken him up on it. It wasn't that Tony didn't think that Bruce could handle hearing about his nightmares--in fact, he thought Bruce was one of the only people on earth who would come close to understanding them--but the idea of voicing his nightmares was too hard. It would make them too real. 

He knew that his reluctance to talk about things--important things--with anyone, including the therapists she'd arranged for him, had bothered Pepper, had been one of the biggest reasons Pepper had left. Tony didn't blame her, couldn't blame her. He'd seen how his behavior was affecting her but he just couldn't bring himself to do anything differently. He'd wanted so badly to protect her. He still wanted that. He wanted to protect Bruce, too, despite Bruce's physical invulnerability. (Bruce was proving himself to be surprisingly fragile in other ways, but at least Tony didn't have to worry too much about what would happen if he accidentally called a suit in his sleep again.) 

Tony drew a deep breath. He still didn't want to talk about his nightmares, but he could try opening up a little more to Bruce. "Can I tell you something dumb?"

"You can tell me anything."

"God, you're so sweet," Tony said, because it was true. Bruce traced circles on Tony's back and waited for him to continue. "It's just...I can't stop thinking about DUM-E and U. The bots?"

"I don't think that's dumb. You had them for a long time, didn't you?"

"Yeah. I made DUM-E when I was just a kid. I--I mean, I know they weren't really...alive...but they had personality. And, I mean, I know it could have been worse...it almost was worse, but I still...it's my fault they're gone."

"It's not your fault. It was the Mandarin's fault, or Killian's, or...or something like that."

"Well. Okay, yeah, but also mine." Tony thought it was pretty rich that Bruce wouldn't let Tony blame himself, when Bruce blamed himself for pretty much everything.

"Hmm," Bruce said noncommittally.

"Anyway, I can't stop thinking about...they're probably rusting at the bottom of the ocean, like...like scrap."

"Well, why don't you go get them?"

"What?" Tony couldn't believe he hadn't thought of that. Well, he _had_ thought of it in the immediate aftermath, but returning to Malibu then felt too fresh. Too raw. He'd thrown himself into other projects instead, and then Bruce had shown up and distracted him, and now here they were, without his bots months later.

"Uh--sorry, if that's not...helpful, I just thought, um. I guess you probably would have done it already if it were feasible. Sorry."

"No, don't apologize, you're right. I just hadn't...I...yeah. We should go." Bruce's hand stilled on Tony's back. Tony hastily added, "Or, um, I'll go. You don't have to come." It had been so hard to convince Bruce to stay in the US at all, Tony knew he was pushing his luck to suggest a cross-country trip.

"No, I'll go with you. If--if you'd like me to. I, um, I'm just not sure how much help I'd be."

Tony gave Bruce a quick kiss on the lips. " _So_ helpful."

"If you say so."

"I _do_ say so. Let's talk about it in the morning?"

"Kay," Bruce agreed.

Tony curled himself against Bruce. "Love you," he said sleepily.

"Love you too." 

"Lights off, J." JARVIS complied and Tony quickly drifted back to sleep, anchored by Bruce. 

Hours later, he awoke peacefully and saw Bruce sitting up in bed beside him, reading something on his tablet.

“Hey, what are you reading?”

“Oh, good morning. Just, um.” Bruce flipped his tablet around to show Tony the diagram on the screen. “Just trying to brush up on robotics a bit, just in case that’s helpful.”

“God, that’s sexy.” Bruce laughed shyly, and Tony yanked down the bedding, revealing the delightful fact that Bruce was still naked except for his reading glasses. “Mm, hey, we should do a photoshoot. We could make a calendar, just a series of tasteful nude photos of you reading different engineering textbooks?”

Still laughing, Bruce shook his head, but Tony noted with satisfaction that Bruce’s body was starting to respond to the appreciation. Tony continued, “We could raise a lot of money for charity.”

“Tony, you are the only person in the world who would buy that calendar.”

“Doubtful, but even so: I would buy _so many copies_.”

Bruce carefully set his tablet and reading glasses on the nightstand. Then he straddled Tony’s lap and kissed him, applying the same diligence to studying Tony’s body. 

Later, Tony rested his head on Bruce’s chest, flushed with a postcoital glow and enjoying a moment of peace. He still missed Pepper sometimes; how could he not? She’d been such a part of his life for so long, he felt like his right arm was missing. But lying there, tracing his fingers through Bruce’s thicket of chest hair and remembering how immediately Bruce had agreed to join him on a rescue mission for his lost bots...Tony appreciated how very lucky he was to have Bruce in his life now. 

Beneath him, Bruce squirmed. “Hey, I’m gonna hop in the shower.”

“Ooh, can I come?”

“Didn’t you already?” Bruce asked, mock-innocence shining in his hazel eyes. Then he grinned. “Yeah, let’s go.”

Tony loved to wash Bruce’s hair for him, and judging from the contented sounds Bruce made in the process, Bruce loved for him to do it. Tony was glad he’d insisted on having ridiculously large shower tubs installed for everyone in the new Avengers Compound. He’d meant for them to be used for muscle soaks, knowing how sore they all often were after training and combat, but it turned out they were even nicer to use when you were only pleasantly sore from sex. 

After they were both clean and content, they went to the kitchen for breakfast. Tony was glad they’d had such a delightful start to their day, since he feared it was all about to go downhill. 

“So, ah, did you still want to go to Malibu today?” Bruce asked after he loaded the dishwasher. 

“I, yeah, I’m not sure what I’ll find but I should check. I don't know why I didn't before. Um, but you don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

“Of course I’ll come. If you want me there.”

“Why on earth wouldn’t I want you there?”

“I don’t know, I thought you might want some privacy?”

Tony scoffed, “I want privacy from the media, but not from _you_.” Bruce gave him a shy smile. He really was adorable. “God, you’re adorable. JARVIS, seriously, follow up with me about my calendar idea.”

Bruce snorted. “That’s the opposite of privacy from the media.”

“Okay, I hear you, but consider an extremely limited run of production? Like maybe just one?”

“But then what will _I_ use to keep track of the days?” Bruce asked thoughtfully. 

"Honestly, there are already a lot of _very_ good photos of me, but I'm sure I could come up with something new for you," Tony responded. He tried to keep his tone light and avoid thinking too much of the horrible mental count Bruce apparently did to keep tally of his Hulk "incidents." "Maybe Thor would let me pose with his hammer? And nothing else?"

Bruce grinned. "Maybe if you asked _very_ nicely."

"Hmm. Maybe you'd better ask him, then."

"You're pretty nice."

"You're nicer."

"Well. Now that my self-esteem is topped off for the morning, should I, ah, go pack? Or will we come back here tonight?"

"Hmm." Tony had been so overwhelmed by the _idea_ of excavating DUM-E and U that he hadn't given thought to the logistics of actually looking for them. "Let me...hmm. Yeah, why don't you pack a bag? Maybe we can make a little vacation of it, take a beach day."

Bruce raised his eyebrows. "You think you're going to want to take a beach day instead of immediately getting back to your workshop?"

Tony felt a warm glow in the pit of his belly. Bruce really did understand Tony and he was choosing to stick around anyway. "Well," he allowed. "Beach day after?"

"I don't need a beach day, but I'll pack a bag. I just wasn't sure how long you thought it might take...but we can do whatever you want, Tony."

"Anything?" Tony raised his eyebrows suggestively.

Bruce laughed. "Probably anything."

"I'll hold you to that. But, listen, I think...there's some stuff I need to get from the Tower. I'll make a quick jaunt into the city, get everything I need, then come back and pick you up with the jet?"

"Okay. You don't want me to come with you into the city?"

"Nah, not unless you really want to. I was planning to just take a suit." Tony hadn't realized quite how badly New York City was stressing Bruce out until he'd had a chance to see how much calmer Bruce was upstate. Tony did have to return to the city fairly regularly, and Bruce was generally content to be left behind. Still, part of Tony feared that if he left Bruce alone for too long, Bruce might fade away, disappearing to an Eastern European hostel or Mongolian yurt or somewhere equally unpleasant. 

Relief on his face, Bruce said, "Okay, yeah, sounds good. I can get some more reading in."

Tony kissed him. "Have I mentioned that I love you?"

"You have, but I don't mind hearing it again."

"I love you, Bruce!"

"I love you too."

"Do you want me to bring you anything back from the city?"

"Just yourself."

"Can do." Tony leaned in for one more kiss and then took off for New York, making a packing list as he flew. It was going to be a real hassle to get all of his stuff moved up to the new compound, but it would have to be done. Ooh, he could delegate it. To...no, not Pepper, but...Happy could do it. Happy would be delighted with a new responsibility, and Happy could probably get everything moved in one piece. Yes. He'd talk to Happy about that, as soon as he got back from Malibu.

And he'd have to talk to Steve, maybe Fury, about getting the rest of the team moved upstate, when they chose. They didn't all live at the Tower full-time anyway, but it would be good to get them established there. It would keep Manhattan safer, and once the new compound was finished, it would be an absolutely world class training facility. The Avengers would need to be in top form if they were going to be able to protect the Earth from whatever was coming.

But first, he was going to try to rescue his bots, dammit.

As he flew, he chatted with JARVIS and had his AI make arrangements for a SI jet and some assistants to be ready at the Tower. He had a bit of heavy lifting in his future, but he was also lucky enough to have good help, and it didn't take much time to get the equipment he thought he'd need loaded up and his pilot ready to pick Bruce up and head west.

It was a short flight back in the jet, but it was still slower than flying his suit and Tony started to feel itchy. Once he had a project in his sights, he just wanted to _do_ it, not wait around on a cushy plane. At least the waiting would be better with Bruce by his side again. To Tony's relief, Bruce hadn't taken advantage of Tony's absence to flee. He was waiting patiently with his backpack and tablet, and he boarded the jet promptly.

Tony was relieved when they got back in the air, but he quickly realized Bruce didn't feel the same. "Bruce? You okay?"

"Mm-hmm, fine," Bruce said, anxiously twisting his hands together and avoiding eye contact.

"You know, Bruce, you are very skilled at many things, but lying is not one of them."

"I, um, I just don't. Really like. Flying? I--I know it's perfectly safe, and all, I just...will be happier...when we are on the ground."

"Oh. I thought--I'm sorry, Bruce, I thought you were nervous the other times we've flown together, because of--"

"Yeah, no, it's definitely way worse to fly when I know I'm going to have to fight an alien at the end of the flight. Like I said, I--I'm fine."

"Oh, Bruce, I'm sorry. I didn't realize." 

"It's okay! It's okay, I wanted to come with you. I've flown, uh, plenty of times, and never...it's fine."

The private jet was small but comfortable, with a few rows of luxurious seats. When Bruce had boarded, they'd sat at the front. But the back of the plane had a sofa, and now Tony guided Bruce back to that. He put his arm around Bruce and gently tugged him down so that his head was resting in Tony's lap, where he began stroking his fingers through Bruce's curls.

"I'm fine, Tony, I'm not going to--"

"I know you're not, but there's no reason you have to be miserable on this flight if there's anything I can do to help. Does...this help?" Tony had noticed that, though Bruce would rarely ask for them, gentle touches often worked better than words to help ground Bruce when he was feeling unstable. But sometimes Bruce still flinched away from any physical contact. At the moment, Bruce hadn't moved, which Tony took as a good sign.

"Yes," Bruce said, his voice small. "Thanks."

"Good."

They sat like that in silence for a few moments until Bruce softly asked, "Would you tell me about your bots?"

"Um. Sure. It's weird that you haven't actually met them, huh...I made DUM-E first, when I was a kid, really, playing around in my father's workshop. He wasn't very useful back then, just kind of a glorified clamp, but still, he...I took him to college with me and made him some upgrades. His name is kind of a misnomer, he had a learning AI."

"Wow, that's really impressive."

"Yeah, I'm kind of a big deal."

"So DUM-E has an AI? Like JARVIS?"

"Not...not quite like JARVIS. But I couldn't have made JARVIS if I hadn't made DUM-E first."

"So DUM-E is like JARVIS's dad."

"Hmm. Kind of. Not exactly."

" _You're_ JARVIS's dad and DUM-E is JARVIS's older brother."

"I think JARVIS might be _my_ dad actually."

Bruce laughed, then stopped when Tony didn't laugh. "Well, you could do worse."

"Yeah…."

"I'm glad you have him, then. What about the other one?"

"Ah, U. I thought it would be funny to name him that but then it turns every conversation about my bots into some kind of Who's on First sketch."

"That seems like a feature, not a bug, for you."

"Yeah, you're right. Anyway, U is a little more...mobile than DUM-E. A little more physically capable. But mostly he's...he was…"

"What?"

"He was a friend for DUM-E. He...god, I'm sorry, it feels silly telling you about this when I know you've been out there, you know, saving lives on your own."

"It isn't silly," Bruce said earnestly. "That was very kind of you."

"Well, it's just, I was so busy with other stuff, I ended up leaving DUM-E alone a lot, and he...he was lonely. I could tell." Tony couldn't help but think of Bruce living on the run for _years_ by himself, and he suddenly bent forward to kiss Bruce on the forehead.

Bruce smiled. "Well, of course. After a being gets used to being in Tony Stark's company, it gets difficult to accept the alternative."

"Yeah. But U is a pretty good runner up, I think."

"Maybe for some purposes." Bruce sat up and kissed Tony.

"Mmm. Yeah. U is a terrible kisser. U the bot, I mean. You the human, are a fantastic kisser."

"I figured. Because of grammar."

"And because I probably wouldn't keep trying to kiss you if you were terrible at it."

"You might. You're pretty persistent."

"Practice _does_ make perfect."

They practiced the rest of the way to Malibu, where Tony had arranged for a car and trailer to meet them at the private landing strip to get his suit and equipment out to the wreckage of his mansion. He felt himself starting to breathe harder when he stepped out of the car.

"Hey," Bruce said. "Let's sit down for a minute, okay?" He gently coaxed Tony to sit down and bend his head between his knees, carefully counting their breaths together. 

"Thanks, Bruce," Tony said, when he could breathe normally again. "I wasn't--I just--there is just _nothing_ here, huh?"

Bruce rubbed Tony's back. "You're here. We're here."

"Right. So, um...well, I guess there's no point in wasting time, huh?"

"Take the time you need, Tony. We're not in a rush."

"Still, I've waited long enough." Tony suited up, a new undersea Mark he'd put together a few weeks ago. He supposed that on some level, he must have known this task was waiting for him.

"You'll, um, call if you need anything?" Bruce asked, twisting his hands together. "I wish I could help more…"

"You've been great, Bruce. Really. I'm just going to do a quick recon dive and then we can strategize based on what I find, okay?"

"Okay. Be careful, please, Tony."

Tony gave Bruce one last kiss and then sealed his faceplate. "Of course," he said, and jumped off the cliff into the ocean below.

He instantly regretted his decision. It was cold and dark underwater, too much like-- _no_ , he had to focus. He counted his breaths like Bruce had showed him. He asked JARVIS to initiate his search & rescue protocol, and he searched, and he searched, and he found… _nothing_.

"Sir, Dr. Banner is calling," JARVIS announced. 

"Put him through, J. Hey, Bruce, what's up?"

"Oh. I just...um, Tony, you should come up."

"What? I haven't been down here that long."

"No, but just...it'll be easier to explain if you come up. Everything's fine. Good, actually, I think."

"Well, if you say so…" Tony said doubtfully. He supposed he could finish his search later. He resurfaced and flew back up to where he'd left Bruce, who was having a casual chat with...Pepper, who looked incongruous among the rubble in her dress suit and heels. "Oh! Uh, hey, Pep. It's, uh, good to see you."

She smiled. "Good to see you, too."

"What, uh, brings you out here?"

"The security company let me know someone was trespassing on the property, but then I saw the footage and figured I'd come talk to you in person."

"What, I'm evicted from the ruins of my own mansion?"

" _No_ , Tony. Listen, you're...you're looking for the bots, right?"

Tony nodded.

"I...they're in storage."

"What?"

"I had a clean-up crew come out here weeks ago. I...thought you might come back for this stuff sometime, but I didn't think it should be hanging out in the ocean all that time."

"Okay...well, um, thank you, but that would have been really great to know earlier."

She nodded. "Well, _I_ thought _you_ might call first before you just came out to California and jumped in the ocean, but...you know, even as I'm saying it, that sounds wrong." Her mouth twisted into a wry grin.

"Yeah, you definitely should have known better."

"Look, I'm sorry, I just...I didn't know how you'd respond. I...you were so...brittle."

" _Brittle_?"

Gently, Pepper said, "You were already so hurt. I didn't want to hurt you any further. If you weren't ready to see them. If you weren't ready to...accept help."

Tony forced himself to breathe, to wait before responding. He didn't want to rehash their old fights. Part of him knew that Pepper was probably right to worry about Tony, to have tried so hard to get him to talk to a therapist. But he also wasn't sure if he could ever convince Pepper--if he even _wanted_ to convince Pepper--of how extremely rational his fears were. She didn't need to worry about what Earth was up against, but _someone_ did.

Bruce said, "Tony, Pepper said all the stuff is in a climate-controlled storage unit not that far from here. Why don't we go take a look, see what shape it's all in?"

Tony swallowed. Bruce and Pepper both looked concerned, and he suspected that he was the cause of that. "No, yeah, let's...let me just change." The clunky deep sea armor didn't come off as smoothly as he preferred, and he still felt...unsettled from his time underwater. He wanted to throw his arms around Bruce for reassurance, but he didn't want to make things weird in front of Pepper. Weird _er_.

Pepper held out her arms for a hug, and Tony accepted it. "It _is_ good to see you," she said. "I mean it."

"Yeah. It's...it's good to see you too. Do you, um. Do you want to come with? To the storage?"

"I...I should be getting back to work, I think, but I already gave Bruce all the details. And absolutely call if you need anything."

"I will. Thanks, Pepper, for...everything."

"You're welcome, Tony. Take care." Pepper squeezed his shoulder and then offered a hug to Bruce, too. Bruce shyly hugged her, then stepped back, just a little stiffly. Still, he was handling an awkward situation fairly gracefully. 

"Um, good to see you, Pepper," he said.

"You too, Bruce. Thanks for looking after Tony."

Blushing slightly and wrapping his arms around himself, Bruce said, "It's, um. You're welcome?"

Pepper smiled and retreated to her waiting car. As soon as she was out of sight, Tony sat back down on the ground. Bruce followed suit, draping an arm around Tony's shoulders.

"Hey, it's good news, though, right?" Bruce asked anxiously.

"No, yeah, I just...I can't believe Pepper...thought of it and I didn't. Or I...I."

"It's okay, Tony. You had...a _lot_ on your mind."

"I didn't forget about them, though!"

"Of course not."

Tony near-whispered, "I think I...was afraid."

"It's okay to be afraid, Tony. I'm afraid...a lot."

"I was afraid of what I might find, so I didn't look, and I would have just…" Something caught Tony's eye, and he picked up a charred screwdriver off the ground. The weight of it was comforting in his hands.

"Shh," Bruce said. "That's why you have teammates, right? So you don't have to do everything. Pepper can get the bots picked up, and you can fix them. And I...can make you coffee while you do it."

"Mm-mm, I'm putting you to work. You've been doing all that studying, can't waste it on coffee duty."

Bruce smiled. "Okay. Well, why don't we go visit the storage facility?"

"We go on the _best_ dates, don't we?"

"They're my favorites."

Tony was very glad to have Bruce's company at the storage unit. His eyes filled with tears at the sight of the bots, even though they really weren't in as bad of shape as they could have been. They'd been cleaned and dried, though no other repair attempts had been made. There was other stuff, too, prototypes and equipment--worse for the wear, but nothing looked irreparable. Not in Tony's hands.

He got the bots and a few other key items loaded onto the trailer and made arrangements to have everything else shipped to the new facility upstate. 

"Okay with you if we skip the beach day?" he asked Bruce.

"Absolutely."

"I do wish you could have seen the Malibu house. I think you would have liked it."

"You could always rebuild."

"That's true. An even more efficient design, this time…" Tony's mind raced. "But first...the bots."

It was late when they got back to the compound, but Tony was too excited to sleep, and Bruce was too worried to let Tony work alone. Tony was glad for Bruce's reassuring company, and for Bruce's brilliant mind. Despite his protestations that he didn't know much about robotics, Bruce was still the best lab partner he'd had since Rhodey back at MIT, and they got DUM-E back online by lunchtime.

"Hey, DUM-E, welcome back!"

DUM-E chirped in response. He picked up Tony's coffee cup and immediately dropped it. It was stainless steel, but the last few drops of coffee spilled out on the tile floor.

Bruce said, "Oh no, maybe I oiled him too much? Sorry…"

"Nah, he's just clumsy." DUM-E beeped mournfully. "DUM-E, this is Bruce Banner! He helped me put you back together. Try not to break his stuff, okay?"

DUM-E extended his claw to Bruce, and Tony's heart swelled as Bruce smiled and extended his hand to shake DUM-E's claw. Then Bruce's smile sharpened into a wince, and Tony scolded, "DUM-E! Did you pinch Bruce?"

DUM-E picked up Tony's coffee cup off the floor and handed it to Bruce, which Tony chose to interpret as an apology.

"Um, thanks, DUM-E," Bruce said.

DUM-E chirped.

"Hey, DUM-E, we're going to get U back online soon. Your friend U, I mean, not...you."

"You're sure you're committed to that name?" Bruce asked. "Hey, maybe after you get him back up and running he can be the new and improved...U2!"

Tony groaned. 

"Or maybe Bono?" Bruce continued.

"I'm choosing to blame this on your lack of sleep," Tony said. "All I know is, I'm going to get him back up and running...with or without you."

Bruce laughed, and DUM-E beeped. 

"How about if you get started with U without me, and I'll go make us some sandwiches?"

"Mmm. That would be great. See, DUM-E, that's how to be helpful around here. Sandwiches." 

Bruce returned quickly with a sandwiches, as well as a loaf of bread, a knife, and a jar of peanut butter. "Here, Tony. Here you go, DUM-E."

Tony watched, amused, as DUM-E experimentally picked up the jar of peanut butter. He set it back down on the table and hesitantly gripped the lid with his claw. "That's it," Bruce said encouragingly. 

"Seriously, Bruce, what did I do without you?"

"Well...you had U," Bruce said with a crooked smile.

"Of course, that's right." Tony quickly ate his sandwich, while DUM-E ruined most of the loaf of bread attempting to make another. Still, the peanut butter reinvigorated Tony, and with Bruce and DUM-E's help, they got U back up and running by dinner time.

"Oh, if I'd been thinking, I would have gotten some champagne for DUM-E to open. Or, um, sparkling cider," Tony said, belatedly remembering Bruce's abstinence from alcohol.

"Well, we'll have to get more bread soon, so we can add that to the list."

"I'll place an order. I...was going to suggest that I should take you out for a celebratory dinner, but…"

"...But what if we just ate pizza and went to sleep?"

"Mm. Yes. What if that?" 

Bruce put his arms around Tony. "I think it sounds like a great plan."

"But tomorrow. A date. A real one."

"I'd put it on my calendar...if only I had one," Bruce said with a grin.

"Okay, okay, so tomorrow morning...boudoir photo shoot. Tomorrow evening...dinner. JARVIS, make a note of it. And a reservation at that place we like."

"Yes, sir."

"Mmm, can we do the photos in the afternoon? I'd like to go to the farmer's market in the morning."

Tony sighed. "JARVIS, update your note."

"Certainly, sir."

Bruce smiled. "And JARVIS, would you please repeat our last pizza order?"

"I actually took the liberty of placing that order for you about twenty minutes ago, Dr. Banner. It should be arriving shortly."

"Excellent, thank you," Bruce said. He was always so polite to JARVIS.

"I love you," Tony said.

"Did you mean me or the bot?" Bruce asked. "That time it wasn't clear."

"You-plural. I love all of you. Bruce, U, DUM-E, JARVIS...I love you."

DUM-E and U both beeped in response, but Bruce kissed him. "Mmm, okay, don't tell the others, but I love you most."

"I can hear you, sir," JARVIS said.

"Well, can you blame me, J? I mean, look at this guy."

Bruce laughed, and JARVIS said, "I take your point, sir. I'm happy you have such good company. Company which now includes the pizza delivery person at the front entrance."

"I'll go get it," Bruce offered. "I'll bring it down."

"Thanks," Tony said. He took a moment to appreciate being alone in his workshop with just JARVIS and his bots again. He'd done a lot of great work with this group, but now it felt lonely without Bruce, even for a minute.

Fortunately, Bruce reappeared with a pizza box in his hands. He opened it and placed it on the workshop table, then he set out two paper plates, all within reach of DUM-E's claw.

"DUM-E? Do you want to serve dinner?" Bruce asked.

DUM-E beeped and reached his claw out to the pizza. He slowly dragged a slice up and over to one of the plates, then nudged the whole thing over to Tony. Tony studied it. It only had a _little_ motor oil on it. "Wow, great job, DUM-E!" Tony moved the rest of the pizza out of DUM-E's reach and plated a slice for Bruce himself. "Thanks for keeping him busy, Bruce, but, um, I think he's earned a break, don't you?"

Bruce studied the two plates with amusement in his eyes. "I guess you're right."

"And so have we. Seriously, thanks, Bruce, for everything."

"You are very welcome. And I mean you, not--"

"Okay, no, yeah, I take your point about the name."

Bruce grinned and took a bite of pizza. Tony smiled back and carefully took a bite from the clean end of the slice DUM-E had given him. He knew there were still a lot of dangers lurking out there, but he was glad to have such a good team at his side for whatever was to come.


End file.
